had an excellent photographer pal nearby, didn't he?
We have a fun holiday planned. Nothing elaborate, and for once, it is close. We won't experience a price gouge for fuel in very touristy Galveston.
We had an odd experience on our last trip. We were in a condo, preparing our meals, avoiding restaurants. It took us two trips to the grocery store to locate a loaf of bread! This trip, we will shop locally, take the food with us.
Hope you are fully recovered, Q.
Thanks for the OT.
Oh! I think the homeless should camp out in state capitols. Maybe the governor's mansions and The White House. It is sure to be warm inside.

US TO DOLE OUT ANOTHER $44B TO UKRAINE #

They could’ve just bought Twitter

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) December 21, 2022

Edited to add this:

So Zelensky the Imperial Puppet will address the US Congress tomorrow "live and in person".

Americans are being subjected to an unending string of psyop maneuvers.

Rumors are swirling that the comedian will fervently appeal for a "no-fly zone".

That will never happen.

— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) December 21, 2022

of foreign relations would necessarily need to place the US in the context of imperialism generally. The free pdf (book) link that Humphrey posted yesterday, Patriots, Traitors and Empire, by Stephen Gowans, makes an interesting point concerning the mechanism by which people of the "homeland" are unable to understand their world.

...According to David Vine, the “United States probably has more foreign military bases than any other people, nation, or empire in history.”8 Such a nation could deny that it has built an empire, but to do so would require the construction of a special reality, a folie en masse, or the creation of something tantamount to the “epistemology of ignorance” Charles Mills argued was necessary, to fail to see that the “liberal” political system of the Western world is, and has always been, white supremacist (i.e., illiberal.)9

Mills’ view, while related to liberalism and race, also illuminates the divergence between the idea of the equality of nations, codified in the United Nations Charter, and the reality of imperialism. The “officially sanctioned reality is divergent from actual reality.” Therefore, one “has to learn to see the world wrongly, but with the assurance that this set of mistaken perceptions will be
validated by” the official “epistemic authority,”10 namely, corporate-funded think-tanks, corporate-endowed universities, corporate-owned mass media, and corporate-dominated governments. Thus, on matters related to foreign relations, the official ideology prescribes an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance, which produces the ironic outcome that the denizens of imperialist countries will in general be unable to understand the world their countries have made.11

This is from a David Kang article, Still Getting Asia Wrong, No "Contain China" Coalition Exists:

East Asian states certainly have residual issues with China to contend with,
such as maritime disputes in the South and East China Seas, and countries in
the region are working toward that end. Yet, the evidence clearly shows that
the US military is not the best or first way East Asian states are seeking to
achieve those ends. Countries are looking for diplomatic solutions, not military
ones. If the US plans a containment coalition against China, there is little evidence that any East Asian country will join it. Combined with the lack of a coherent American economic or diplomatic strategy for the region from Republican or Democratic presidential administrations alike, this is evidence of the US’ illusory views of itself and of the world, and of an almost stubborn unwillingness by the US policymaking elite to update their theoretical views of East Asia to present realities. It is far past time for that update to take place.

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.gwu.edu/dist/1/2181/files/2022/12/Ka...

Japan's new security policy has "unified" support in U.S., says envoy (Amb. Rahm Emmanuel)

This reminds me of the phrase "unleash Chiang Kai-shek."

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/12/822aaa0010d8-japans-new-secur...

U.S. sends B-52 bombers, F-22 fighters for joint drills with South Korea -News1
Reuters Dec. 20

These exercises basically in East China Sea southwest of Cheju island. The F-22s landed at Kunsan AFB in South Korea. The B-52s stopped over first at Kadena in Japan. VOA described the B-52s as "nuclear capable."

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-b-52s-fly-near-south-korea-as-north-korea-r...

In their new defense "counterstrike" offensive policy papers, Japan affirmed that the South Korean Dokdo isles in the middle of the East Sea/Sea of Japan were Japanese territory. I heard objections from some South Korean democratic National Assembly members (one a former 4 star Deputy CFC commander) yesterday, who also objected to Japan's new offensive "counterstrike" strategy. Haven't heard the Yoon administration say a word about it. One of the opposition Assembly members questioned the decision process by which Japan might decide to attack North Korea, and asserted that it was represented a potential threat to South Korean security. Initially the phrase "preemptive strike" was used in the policy discussion in Japan, but lately the term had been dropped in favor of "counterstrike." The notion of a US "preemptive strike" on North Korea has been widely discussed in South Korean media in the past, and they are well aware of what it entails when someone says counterstrike with conventional weapons, preemptive counterstrike is what they mean. South Korea's President Yoon has openly endorsed the idea of a "preemptive counterstrike" in past public statements.

North Korea ready to prove ICBM progress by firing at normal trajectory, Kim’s sister claims
CNN Dec 20
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/asia/north-korea-icbm-missile-test-plans-...

There is a lot of potential here for miscalculation.

Source- 출처=교수신문
출처 : 아틀라스뉴스(http://www.atlasnews.co.kr)www.atlasnews.co.kr
This is the South Korean selection for four character idiom of the year for 2022. Seeing a mistake (disaster) and not fixing it. The second most popular idiom was when you try to cover up something, the more it comes into view ( 慾蓋彌彰 ).